American Pop Culture 101

Monkey Attack

I was sitting in a conference room with my coworkers today and the topic turned to television. They talked about shows like Gossip Girl, House and 24 and discussed the characters as if they were real people. The discussion goes on for 5 minutes or so. The entire time I have no idea what they're talking about. Finally one of them asks me if I watch these shows. I had to answer no.

I don't watch much television because I find it's usually a waste of my time. I'd rather spend it creating something. If I do watch TV, it's usually Masterpiece Theater, or some show with people wearing costumes and speaking with British accents. I guess this makes me out of touch with the mainstream.

Anyhow, I feel like I need a primer on American pop culture, so I did some online research on the shows mentioned. It's still not a priority of mine to follow these shows, but at least I know what the youngsters are watching these days.

Another aspect of American culture I needed to catch up on was the Superbowl, especially the advertisements. I found a good website that shows all the ads in the 4 quarters. Some of the more talked about ads are as follows:

1st quarter
1. Pepsi Forever Young
2. Doritos snow globe
3. Go Daddy

2nd quarter
1. E-trade babies
2. Teleflora rude flowers

3rd quarter
1. Coke picnic
2. Monster - moose

To view all the commercials, you need to click on each of the quarters (1st, 2nd, etc.) My favorite was the Coke picnic commercial with the Monster - moose coming in second.
Okay, now I'm more culturally informed.